Security Council 2027-2028

The Government of Austria announced its candidature to the United Nations Security Council for the term 2027-2028, at the elections to be held in 2026 in New York.

Membership of the Security Council

The Security Council is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The Security Council is made up of only fifteen members, making it the smallest of the principal organs. This group of fifteen includes five non-elected, permanent members (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States), leaving only ten countries as the elected portion. Proposals for the expansion of the Security Council’s membership and reform of its working methods to incorporate more transparency mechanisms currently are being considered in the General Assembly.

The Security Council’s ten elected members hold staggered two-year terms, which are not immediately renewable. Each year the General Assembly elects five new non-permanent members to the Security Council, where they serve two-year terms. The elections follow the General Assembly’s Rules of Procedure, in particular Rules 83 and 93, which call for an unlimited number of voting rounds until one candidate obtains a two-thirds majority of the present members.